


Playing the Game

by obsess97



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: Gen, If you squint really hard you can make out the Naegiri, It was supposed to be a character study idk what happened, Spoilers for chapter 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-16
Updated: 2013-07-16
Packaged: 2017-12-20 09:40:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/885762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obsess97/pseuds/obsess97
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kyouko Kirigiri isn't quite as detached as she makes herself out to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Playing the Game

**Author's Note:**

> This is pretty much a rewrite of the end of the fifth trial, but from Kirigiri's POV. Spoilers ahead if you're not there yet by the way.

_Things are looking bad… but I can’t be executed, not now, not yet._

_I have to stay here; I’m so close to figuring out the mastermind’s secrets… I’ll do anything to solve them._

_Suspicion is away from me now. Good, this is-_

"We’re out of time!" Monobear announced gleefully. “This trial is over! So please stop talking now!"

"W… what?" Naegi stammered out, stunned. “O…out of time…?"

In that instant, I blinked, and something inside my mind cleared up. In order to protect myself, I…

"What is the meaning of this?" I demanded, cutting off my own thought process. “This time limit is strange! We’ve never had one before…"

"It’s because you were late! That’s why we’re pressed for time!" he declared, grinning maniacally at me. As he continued to talk, forcing us to vote for a culprit, I could feel a sense of dread creeping up on me, not unlike the first time I witnessed an execution. I stared at the panel in front of me as the voting options came up. I vaguely registered Naegi’s voice, confused and begging us to wait, in the back of my mind…

I never did select an option. But the others did. Thanks to my deceptions, they all voted Naegi as the culprit. Monobear didn’t even call me out on not voting, because he knew exactly what game he was playing.

I looked over at Naegi; he was just staring at the results of the voting. His face had gone absolutely pale. “I’m… the culprit?"

Glancing at the faces of our companions, I knew that none of them wanted to believe it. But in their minds, it was the only explanation. They didn’t know about the mastermind’s game. They didn’t know what I knew, that none of us had committed this murder, that this was a trap to be rid of me…!

"N… no, you’re all wrong… It’s all wrong, I’m not the culprit-" Naegi’s protests were cut of by Monobear’s laugh.

"Well done, everyone! You were correct once again!" Monobear exclaimed.

"C… correct?" Naegi choked out. “B… but that’s… strange… It’s strange! Nothing is right! This school trial itself isn’t right!"

"Nothing is strange here!" Monobear snapped, defensive at the accusation. _As he should be._ “It’s just like always! A school trial like all the others! Therefore, let’s do that thing we do, just like always!" I watching Naegi somehow pale even more as Monobear declared, “Our exciting, heart-pumping, punishment time!"

I clenched my fist. _That punishment is…_

"W… wait, why am I…" For the first time since I had turned suspicion back on him, I felt Naegi’s gaze turn to me. “K… Kirigiri-san…!"

"… I will not let him get away with it." I said, forcing myself to look Naegi in the eye. “It was all my responsibility."

He was definitely scared, it was easy to see in his eyes. “Kirigiri…san…?" I looked away, doubting myself.

_This won’t happen… I can’t let it…!_

"Time to get excited! It’s punishment time!" Monobear cackled,yanking out his gavel and slamming the red button. The familiar 8-bit “GAME OVER" tune played, and onscreen, a pixelated sprite of Monobear snatched a sprite of Naegi and dragged it away. I whipped around, and sure enough, the real Naegi was being forced into a dark corridor right off the courtroom.

Unable to help myself, I sprinted over to the opening, only to have a gate clang shut in my face right before I could enter. I heard the footfalls of the others as they followed me, waiting to see what was going to happen to him.

The lights flicked on, showing us the mastermind’s latest execution chamber. It was easy enough to see Naegi. He was seated at a desk that was on some sort of conveyor belt, his hands on his knees, tensed up and staring straight ahead.

It was far too easy to imagine myself in his place. _That’s because, if this went the way it was supposed to, then…_

The desk was traveling backwards. The destination: a cinderblock, designed to look like a chalkboard, being raised up and dropped back down every few seconds. Even from a distance, I could make out some writing on it.

"Detention…" Fukawa read out in a whimper, and I clenched my fists again.

A cart with a cardboard cutout of a chalkboard and Monobear came out, traveling right in front of Naegi, in a mockery of a real detention. At the top of the machine was a monitor, showing Monobear’s face swinging around in time to every ‘clang’ of the block colliding with the ground. 

_He’s going to be crushed to death right in front of us…!_

The desk continued its show journey, and Naegi’s face was beginning to change color rapidly as he braced himself. I was rooted to my spot unable to move, although all I wanted to do was shut my eyes. The desk drew closer and closer to the cinderblock at an agonizingly slow pace. Naegi glanced to the side momentarily, trying to see how much longer he had.

His eyes shut quickly in response to whatever he saw; his face was nearly blue in apprehension. The desk was just about underneath the block. Half a second more…

Monobear’s dancing face glitched out.

I nearly missed it, my eyes being transfixed on Naegi. But my eyes jumped to the screen, just in time to see a familiar and determined face replace the crazed grinning one. It was only for an instant; the screen reverted to a blank blue almost immediately. I held my breath, waiting for Monobear’s face to reclaim the screen. To laugh that awful laugh of his, to assure us that he was using Alter Ego just as surely as he was using us. To prove that nothing was in our power; our lives were a mere game, and we were losing.

It never came.

The machine whined to a halt. The cinderblock stopped falling. Naegi’s eyes, which had been squeezed shut, slowly blinked open. He glanced up warily, but nothing fell on him.

The feeling of relief that spread through me vanished as quickly as it appeared when I realized that, although the mechanism had stopped, the conveyor belt had not. The desk continued on, throwing Naegi down a dark trapdoor before any of us could fully understand what had just taken place.

———————————————

Later on, after I joined him in the basement, he hardly looked shaken at all. When he declared that he was all set to get going, I couldn’t help but smile to myself.

"So, you never gave up, did you…"

"Of course I didn’t…" Naegi said, giving me a small grin. “My one and only saving grace is being an optimist, after all…"

"That’s a fantastic saving grace, you know…" I mused, more to myself than to him. _I wonder what you were thinking when that block was about to crush you…_

"So, Kirigiri-san…" He interrupted my train of thought. “Why did you come to save me?"

"I’m returning a favor…" I tried, except- _that’s not it._ “No, maybe I should say I’m atoning for my sins…"

"Atoning?"

The smile I was wearing melted off my face. “During the school trial, you knew I was telling a lie, and yet you kept quiet, didn’t you?"

"You noticed that…" Naegi said quietly.

_You expected anything else?_ “Nevertheless, I couldn’t save you…" _I need to say this._ “I ended up… abandoning you…"

"I… I don’t think you’ve abandoned me…!" He denied, as quickly as expected. 

"No, I am not exaggerating. In order to save my own life, I abandoned you." _Saying it out loud like that…_ “You tried to help me, and yet I abandoned you." _You trusted me, and if you had died up there, I would be as guilty as the mastermind…_

_It makes me wonder, to what extent can you threaten a human being before they unintentionally destroy the things that matter to them?_

_Perhaps… this is the despair the mastermind wants for us…_


End file.
